TeraWatt Work Streams
WORKSTREAM 1: The Research Questions, and Monitoring Progress towards Project Aims/Deliverables and the Methods Toolbox (Lead Marine Scotland Science - MSS)
Although developers have entered into agreements to lease sites with The Crown Estate, all projects remain subject to licensing requirements under the Marine Scotland Act 2010. Marine Scotland (Science, and Licensing Operations Team) will be responsible for integrating the scientific, technical and socio-economic advice which will determine the success of applications, and the speed at which licences can be issued. This WS led by MSS has formulated a number of research questions, work on which will develop a methods toolbox, essential to accelerating the deployment of wave and tidal arrays:
WORKSTREAM 2: Wave and tidal stream modelling (Lead Edinburgh University)
This workstream will increase our knowledge, confidence and understanding of coupled hydrodynamic models of wave and tidal systems. The research incorporates the physical impacts of marine renewable developments within these. Enhanced hydrodynamic models will examine various development scenarios based upon the PFOW leasing round. These scenarios will provide a framework for examining the response of the underlying hydrodynamic system in the region to harvesting of wave and tidal energy. The model set-up and required outputs will feed through to WS3 and WS4 to facilitate assessment of the impact of hydrodynamic alterations due to energy harvesting on sediment and ecosystem dynamics.
WORKSTREAM 3 Sediment Dynamics (Lead Glasgow and Strathclyde)
The ‘near-field’ effects on suspended and seabed sediment material in the vicinity of developments are likely to include localised scour, with associated deposition of re-suspended sediment elsewhere, most of this being caused by the physical presence of devices on or near the seabed, rather than to energy extraction per se. This is likely to be highly sensitive to aspects of device and array design and placement, including moorings and associated structures. Large scale (at least 50 km) changes in morphodynamics would also be expected as a result of altered wave and tidal environment, affecting sediment transport rates, seabed topography and littoral zone processes (Miller et al., 2007). Thus changes in erosion, deposition and suspension of sediment due to the placement of energy extraction systems can be expected at a wide range of scales (Couch and Bryden, 2005).
WORKSTREAM 4 Ecological Consequences of wave and tidal energy extraction (Lead HWU)
The mean and variability in tidal and residual current flows (e.g. Osalusi et al., 2009) in sea levels and wave heights, fresh water inputs, stratification and the mixing generated by wave and current shear turbulence, interaction of waves and tidal streams and these combined with arrays of energy extraction devices will all influence the oceanographic processes and hence the ecology of a region (Shields et al., 2011). This includes indirect effects on biota, mediated by changes in sediment dynamics and suspended particle loads.